You meet the nicest people
Posted on August 10, 2008
Filed Under Random musing |
Posted by Stan
Would you drive three hours out of your way to see this? You would if you are a Slow Traveler.
We didn’t know anything about “the world’s largest illuminated fiddle” until we saw the image on a postcard in a Cape Breton gift shop. It’s not just that we have an affection for roadside attractions, particularly “the world’s largest [fill in the blank],” but that earlier in the day we picked up a book of fiddle music and a CD to go with it because Sierra plays the violin.
So although we previously had no plans to visit Sydney we headed off the next morning to the largest city on Cape Breton. With Daria furiously looking through guidebooks for a clue as to where in the region it would be located, we wheeled into town feeling a little lost.
I pulled into the first gas station and asked the man behind the counter (sounds simple, but I can’t count how many times in the past similar questions have been met with blank stares). He didn’t hesitate. Just get back on this street and drive down five kilometers, he said, providing a few other instructions.
Then the only customer in the place joined the conversation. “You going right now? I’ll show you the way,” he said. No was not an option.
Out the door he went, climbing into his truck. We followed. When we reached our destination he led us into the parking lot, then got out of his truck to chat.
Ten minutes later we were still talking, like everybody in the Northeast these days, about the weather (”Worst rain we’ve ever seen”). And about gas prices, and about how not everybody in Sydney thought spending the money to build a 57-foot-tall, eight-ton fiddle was a great idea, about RV campgrounds, about driving through the Canadian Rockies.
One person like this, whose name we never got, makes up for scores of drivers who honk and make unfriendly gestures when you are driving around a little bit lost.
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